Salient
by Dpreukssiya
Summary: Salient Strikingly conspicuous, Prominent. Would be the one word that Tucker would use to describe Washington. The man who had sacrificed himself to ensure his team's safety. The man that Tucker just can't seem to get out of his head. The reds and blue's unite under risky circumstances. The threat of being slain by Felix and Locus yields an old ally and a new base.


"You slimy son of a bitch how fucking could you!?" Fists where whizzing past Carolina's head each one phasing through the tiny AI perched on her shoulder.

"Look Tucker, we did what we had to, and it's not like Church has a body of his own." Carolina's helmet hit the floor, brilliant emerald eyes and scorching red hair emerged. "Although he did happen to come with me rather willingly…" The red head muttered under her breath.

"I don't give a flying fuck! He's a heartless bastard! Caboose and I didn't even get to say goodbye and you want me to be happy skippity do da with this fucking asshole. Yeah I don't think so." Tucker growled lowly before throwing his helmet off to look Carolina square in the face.

"Look there must have been some reason why you just up and left without even telling anyone where you were going. It was a dick move to just leave…" Wash's voice spoke up as he stepped closer to Tucker.

"Look I don't have to have a reason when I just saved all your sorry asses from Felix and Locus. The least you could do is be appreciative before you go jumping down our throats!" Carolina was smoldering as she stepped closer to her previous team mate. "I even told you that I missed you all. So you're welcome." She continued stepping into Washington's personal space to glare at him.

"We did what we had to and I figured saying good bye and all that bull shit would have upset everyone more than it would comfort you. Because then everyone would have tried to stop us from going. Carolina had something that she wanted to check on and everyone just would have gotten in the god damn way." Church bit out irritably.

"Look man I don't give a fuck if you all were going to save the god damn galaxy it still would have been nice to know that you were leaving in the first place. You hurt Caboose although he's such a fucking dumb ass he doesn't realize that he should be pissed at you right now." Wash's hand brushed Tucker's shoulder in what he hoped to be a reassuring manner. "Look man don't fucking touch me right now ok?" The aqua simulation trooper threw Wash's hand to the side.

"Ok look would you have rather ended up as dead fucking meat? You were about to be shot and killed. Executed by Locus and Felix. So if you'd prefer to go back I can send you there." Carolina raised one of the "future cubes" so dubbed by Grif, and held it in a threatening manner above her head.

"You know what, fuck this shit man. You're never going to see what you did wrong Church so I don't even know why I'm fucking talking to you right now." Tucker practically yelled as he stormed off towards what he assumed to be a base.

"Look go easy on him Carolina, he lost a dear friend and he's pissed that he just decides to show up one day…" Washington scratched the back of his head in a rather awkward manner searching Carolina's eyes for understanding.

"You know this isn't really my issue anymore, sorry Church but if they are going to be mad at someone it's going to be you buddy." She rolled her eyes at the hologram AI perched above her shoulder. "Oh and by the way Wash, we found Doc."

"You know I don't even see why they call him a medic if he doesn't know what the fuck he's doing. Like ever." Grif chided in with hopes of diminishing the rather tense atmosphere. Simmons snorted at Grif's side in slight amusement. "Wait actually that doesn't matter right now, if you found Doc and he had been here all that time after I future cubed him away, then he must have found some form of shelter, and food. See you later suckers!" Grif grinned inside his helmet flipping everyone off as he strut away towards the direction everyone else had left towards.

Simmons let out a deep sigh, "Well I guess I'll go make sure that fat ass doesn't eat all of the food…" Simmons grumbled to himself.

"If that dirt bag thinks that he's going to eat all the food rations and then blame it on a rat again he's got another thing coming to him. And that thing will most likely be a shotgun" Sarge laughed throatily following after Simmons.

"And yet they still continue to act like nothing is wrong… Like nothing happened."

"Carolina what do you expect? They are probably sick of being separated from their teams. It's just how they all cope. Can you blaming them for wanting to push all of what happened underneath the rug and just call it a day? Besides it's safe here for now right?" The grey freelancer spoke softly before jogging after the rest of them.

* * *

It had been four days since Felix and Locus had tried to kill them all. There was one small base in the middle of an earthy toned dessert. There where various metal crates that surrounded the barren landscape. Minus a few scattered metal junk pieces the farthest the eye could see was a vast dessert.

Doc had been utterly thrilled to see the rest of his companions. Living situations sorted themselves out rather naturally. Donut joined Doc, Caboose and Carolina shared a room (according to Caboose, Church and him had lots of time to make up for all the time they had missed out on together. Much to the bemusement of Church. Grif and Simmons rather naturally chose their room together first out of everyone else. Tucker and Wash ended up in the same room together (More like forced since Sarge insisted on bunking with Lopez.

A natural order came to them. Wake up eat breakfast cooked jointly by Doc and Donut, Sit around to nothing, Eat again, Train (In Carolina and Wash's day), do nothing, eat, sleep. Wash rinse and repeat.

"I'm getting sick of always being trapped in the dessert or some sort of canyon with nothing to do." Grif complained as he threw rocks discreetly at Sarge who was repairing Lopez (Who was in no need of repairs) Grif twirled a cigarette in his hand before lighting it and breathing in heavily.

"I love you decide your going to fuck up MY lungs by smoking those atrocious things." Simmons as always was sitting next to Grif, his eyes watering as smoke was blown into his face. "And anyway you slob how did you even have those?" Simmons coughed his eyes brimming with tears agitated by the smoke. It was one of those lazy no helmet days for pretty much everyone. Minus Lopez of course for rather obvious reasons.

"Don't question a man and his ways Simmons. A man has to have some secrets of his own."

"You stole them from Kimball didn't you?" Grif flinched slightly. "Wow Grif that's a new low even for your standards. And anyway why are you complaining you never do anything anyway. Everything is always just a big ass vacation to you."

"You know Simmons, sometimes I wonder how we are friends."

"Would you prefer talking to donut? And dealing with his double entendre's all day?"

"Nope."

"Yeah neither would I. Ring a bell as to why we're friends now?"

"I hate you." Grif muttered under his breath his eye catching on Carolina and Wash sparring in the near distance. "It just doesn't stop with them ever does it?" Grif nodded in the ex-freelancers direction. "I'm sure you loved training with him when you were on the blue team that one time!" Grif erupted into laughter "And the fact that Freckle's was threatening to kill you for in-subordination made it that much funnier. You had to follow all of Wash's 'rules'" Grif cracked up laughing again grabbing his armor covered stomach.

Rules… Simmons bushed a deep crimson as he remembered the time that it wasn't just Freckles threating his life. Cheeks flushed a deep red…. Molten steel eyes glassed with arousal… Gravelly voice deep and threatening. It was sexy and low… sultry…

"_Don't mmmm tell me you're afraid of me now… Ah fuck yeah just like that…"_

Simmons' face was a deep scarlet and he his face between his hands in embarrassment. That time had been a mistake. Shit just exploded in more ways than one and before he knew it there was cum sticking to his armor.

"Simmons uh hello are you listening? Are you alright? Your face is red. You look like you have a fever."

"Uhn yeah I-I'm fine w-why do you ask?" Simmons voice rose two octaves.

"Whatever man." Grif waved his hands in a dismissive manner at Simmons.

It's not even like Simmons had a crush on the man or anything, He was just trying to appease all the rules that Wash and set forth and in doing so his kiss ass attitude bit him in the ass. Simmons wasn't really interested in anyone in THAT way now that he thinks about it. The maroon simulation trooper's mind wandered. He wondered if any of his teammates or anyone else in their weird ass group had a love interest.

"What the hell are you thinking about Simmons I'm trying to rant to you about how much I hope there aren't bats here and you're not even listening to me." Grif sighed heavily glancing to the side at Simmons whose eyes glittered softly the way the sun was hitting his face. He stared longer at his team mate then he would have liked to have admitted. The way he looked in the sunlight just then wouldn't leave Grif's mind. The red head's skin was glowing softly in the light the freckles that bridged his nose and cheeks popping up against the faint red color that dusted his cheeks. Bright emerald eyes catching the light just right.

Grif averted his gaze once he realized he had been starring. A small flush hitting his cheeks he sighed and continued to smoke the cigarette he had practically wasted by now.

Across the field Wash and Carolina exchanged blows before Wash gained the upper hand and pinned Carolina effectively against the floor.

"You lost this time. Admit it." Wash's face was dead serious as he gazed down into Carolina's face who was irritated to say the least that she had lost against someone who used to be quite a few ranks below her. Carolina growled beneath him before head butting him roughly in the face and rolling to the side effectively out of his grasp.

"You still have a shit tone more to work on. Your better yes, but you'll never be better than me Wash. One bad run in with epsilon and now you're completely different, I had two AI's."

"I wasn't turning this into a personal vendetta you know. It's not my fault your rusty. And you have o idea what I went through. That little shit blew up and committed suicide inside my head. A lot different than having voiced that won't shut up. Which by the way, we all coped with. You weren't the only one that went through shit Carolina."

Carolina growled deeply and charged pass Wash.

"Look fine you won this time around. Don't be expecting it to happen again." Carolina retreated back into their makeshift base passing Tucker along the way who scowled at Church the whole time.

"Dude what the fuck is her problem?" Tucker quipped as he approached the ex-freelancer.

"She got pissed because I beat her at a round of sparring and then set her straight when she started to criticize me." Wash gave a half laugh as he watched her retreating form in the distance. "Honestly I don't really care if she gets pissed at me. I always wanted someone while we were on the mother of invention to just tell her off. Tex got close to it several times though."

"Was she always so bitchy?"

"Who Carolina? Or Tex?'

"Carolina."

"Yeah she was really always that way although it did get a lot worse after Tex came into the picture. She went from being the overbearing I'm better then you type to the straight out bitchy. Although she was never as bad as south." Wash glared at nothing in particular, just mentioning her name left a bitter-sour taste in his mouth.

"She got her brother killed essentially, shot me in the back and then took off with the AI I had been sent to recover."

"She sounds like a nice lady." Tucker grinned slightly sarcasm dripping from his voice.

"Oh yeah she was such fun to be around. She really knew how to be a team player" Wash shot out irritably.

"Hey look man I was kidding." Tucker placed his hand on Wash's armored shoulder. "And hey man I'm sorry about the other day when I shrugged you off. I was just pissed at Church, and pissed at you although Church was the one I wanted to rip to pieces." The aqua soldier shrugged his shoulders lightly.

"Wait," Wash started "Why the hell where you pissed at me?!" Wash's voice escalated slightly.

"Look man, you're fucking stubborn as hell. You could have left with me and everyone else. But you were a stubborn bitch who was ready to sacrifice anything for your squad including your own life. And believe me I was not ok with you trying to play hero and then killing yourself." Tucker grimaced slightly.

"What else did you expect me to do Tucker… I was ready to whatever it took to ensure that you all where safe, I was team captain and I chose accordingly." Ok now Washington was starting to get a little ticked off.

"Ok yeah whatever you where trusting your gut, but what if you had died, that would have been on my conscience for the rest of my life."

"Tucker look you don't understa—" Wash was cut off as Tucker pulled the blond by his armor forward towards him.

"I fucking was worried alright!? I fucking missed you, you prick I thought you were dead!" Tucker growled as he pushed Wash into a giant rock just behind him.

"What? You said that you hated me practically! You told me that I wasn't fit to give you orders!"

"Because I was pissed off about Church! I trained the soldiers that where under my command the same way you were training Caboose and I." Tucker's face flushed up slightly as he growled at Wash his face melting from pissed to worried.

"I'm sorry Tucker…" The ex-freelancer wasn't sure what to say and stood there stalk still. The gap between Tucker and Wash had significantly closed and their faces where now only about an inch apart. They were breathing in each other's air.

"Well you better fuckin' be you son of a bitch…" Tucker's voice was small now, he was avoiding eye contact with Wash.

"Tucker…" Wash gripped Tucker's chin lightly in his grip forcing him to make eye contact their lips now millimeters apart. Tucker's heartbeat was hammering in his chest with adrenaline and now something else, his cheeks were flushed his breathing rapid. The aqua soldier felt dizzy and fluttery.

Washington found himself unable to think as Tucker leaned in closer their lips ghosting across each other slightly.

"Yoohoooo! Silly boys running off near dinner time. Dinner is ready! Doc and I cooked up something super tasty and if you don't hurry it up pronto Grif is going to eat it all!" Donut's voice broke through the air and Wash jumped away from tucker rather awkwardly leaving Tucker with his hand on the rock below him and a sense of disappointment. It was almost as if an iron anchor was keep Tucker from moving.

"Yeah yeah Donut we're coming." Wash bit out shakily ghosting his hands over his lower lip softly making it tingle.

"What were you two kids doing out there hmmm?" Donut chided his eyes glittering mischievously.

"Nothing. Drop it."

"Ohhh so fierce. I like feisty men."

Wash groaned inwardly and glanced back at Tucker. Their eyes connected, and Wash was instantly breathless. Tucker was hurt. And that was one of the farthest things that Wash wanted.


End file.
